The Antoinette Lattouf unlawful dismissal case had “many failings” and has cost the ABC more than $2.5m in external costs alone, ABC managing director Hugh Marks has told Senate estimates.
In his first appearance before parliament in the role, Marks said the public broadcaster failed to follow its own processes, resulting in the ABC breaching the law and accruing substantial external and in-house legal costs.
“What our internal costs are is hard to estimate, but obviously extensive time and effort on behalf of many people in the ABC,” he said on Wednesday night.
“I mean, you know, this was all there to be avoided. So, you know, it is not a good reflection on the organisation.”
Last month the ABC was ordered by the federal court to pay Lattouf $150,000 in pecuniary penalties for terminating her employment, with the judge saying the broadcaster had “abjectly surrendered” to pro-Israel lobbyists and “let down the Australian public badly”.
In June, Justice Darryl Rangiah found the ABC contravened section 772 of the Fair Work Act and breached five clauses of the ABC’s enterprise agreement, and awarded Lattouf $70,000 in compensation.
Marks, who took over from David Anderson in March, said there were still “some final accounts to come in” and he can’t draw a line under it yet, “as much as I’d like to at this point”.
The ABC had the correct editorial and employment policies in place but they were not followed and the incident demonstrated a lack of understanding about who has the ability to make decisions.
“If those processes were followed appropriately, then I’d have to think that we wouldn’t have got to that outcome,” Marks said. “So the processes, procedures were there, they just weren’t followed.”
Justice Rangiah found the main decision-maker, former chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor, “blithely ignored the risk that the ABC would be in contravention of the enterprise agreement and forged ahead with his decision to terminate”.
Marks said it was inaccurate to say the ABC could have settled for $85,000 because there were a number of demands Lattouf was making which would have amounted to a breach of editorial standards. The casual broadcaster was asking for a public apology and reinstatement as a fill-in radio presenter, as well as a lump sum.
The ABC rejected Lattouf’s offer to settle because it involved an obligation to employ someone as part of a settlement, he said.
“So I think I can say, having looked at the record, there was a very serious attempt to find a settlement of proceedings. It was a shame that that did not occur, and here we find ourselves today.
Marks said the ABC made “substantial efforts” to find a commercial settlement and he revealed the final financial offer the ABC made was $150,000.
“There seem to be many failings in the Lattouf matter,” he said.
“They’re a good reminder of the expectations and responsibility of the organisation to act appropriately in all such environments.”
Marks said the ABC’s role will become more important in society, not less, in the age of AI and misinformation.
In an opening statement tabled by the committee Marks said the ABC’s latest corporate tracker survey saw the broadcaster score 80% for “tend to trust/trust a great deal” which is the highest rating since October 2024.
“This result mirrors the finding by Roy Morgan research recently which found that the ABC was the most trusted media organisation in Australia,” he said
He told the senators the ABC has been the No 1 Australian digital news brand every month since December 2024 with an audience of 13 million.
“But we’re far from complacent,” he said. “There is much room for improvement. We continue to work hard to ensure that the ABC is as efficient as it can be and ensure that the right choices are made with the budget we have.”
